Door-operating mechanism.



A. CAMPBELL DOOR OPERATING MECHANISM.

APPLICATION FILED MAYM; 1911.

Patented Feb. 5,19]l&

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ARGYLE CAMPBELL, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, AS-SIGNOR TO ENTERPRISE RAILWAY EQUIPMENT COMPANY, 013 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

DOOR-OPERATING MECHANISM.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 5, 1918,.

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, ARGYLE CAMPBELL, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Door-Operating Mechanisms, of which the following is a full, clear, concise, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification.

This invention relates to improvements in door operating mechanisms.

In the operation of railways, it frequently happens that hopper cars and more particularly ore cars, are run upon trestles or wharves to be unloaded and in such a mannor that the operators have access to one side of the cars only for effecting the opening of the doors and heretofore, considerable difficulty has been encountered in so arranging the door operating mechanism that the operator can release the doors regardless of the position of the cars on the trestles or wharves.

The object of my invention is to provide a simple and economical arrangement of door operating mechanism more particularly adapted for ore cars, so arranged that the operating shaft for the hopper doors can be released from either side of the car and the invention is in the nature of an improvement on the construction shown in my prior Patent No. 1,185.05? granted May 30th, 1916.

In the drawing forming a part of this specification, Figure 1 is a broken side elevation of a portion of an'ore car showing my improvements in connection therewith. Fig. 2 is a horizontal sectional View, taken substantially on a plane just above the shaft 23, the section extending from one side of the car slightly beyond the center sill, in order to more clearly illustrate the mechanism. And Fig. 3 is an enlarged side elevational view of the ratchet, pawl, and locking dog on one side of the car.

In said drawing, 10 denotes the side wall of a car, such as an ore car, 11 a Z-bar side sill, 12 the hopper doors and 13 the main or operating shaft by which all of the doors are controlled, said shaft 13 extending transversely of the car and from one side to the other. From said shaft 13. at the center of the car within the center sills, extend duplicate sets of links 14 and chains 15 connected at their other ends to the doors 12, whereby the doors .2 are operated simultaneously as will be understood, and for a more detailed description of said connections, reference may be had to my co-pending application for improvement in hopper cars, Ser. No. 168,401, filed May 14,1917.

At each end, the shaft 13 is provided with a squared head 16 whereby the shaft 13 may be operated directly by a claw bar in the usual manner. Also secured to each end of the shaft 13 is a ratchet wheel 17 and co operable with each ratchet wheel 17 is a pivoted pawl 18, the latter being pivoted to the sides of the car, as pawl 18 is provided with a blunt end 20 adapted to'coope'rate with the teeth of the corresponding ratchet wheel 17, as will be understood, and in addition, each pawl 18 is provided with a shoulder 21 on its upper face with which cooperates a locking dog 22. A dog 22 is provided for each pawl 18 and said dogs 22 are rigidly secured to the ends of an auxiliary shaft 23 which also extends transversely of the car from one side to the other and in a plane above the main or operating shaft 13. At each end, the auxiliary shaft 23 is provided with a handle 2-1 so that the shaft 23 may be operated from either side of the ca r.

Each dog 22 is provided with an enlarged substantially arcuate slot 25 near its lower edge and loosely mounted in said slot 25 is a link 26, the link 26 being attached at its lower end to its corresponding' pawl 18.

The full lines in F ig. 3 indicate the position of the ratchet wheel, pawl, link, and dog, when the operating shaft is in locked position, that is, with the doors closed. lVhen it is desired to release the shaft 13, the operator at either side of the car turns the auxiliary shaft 23 by means of one of the handles 24 and as the shaft 23 is rotated, the dogs 22 will assume the position shown in dotted lines in Fig. 3, wherein it will be seen that the dog 22 is fully disengaged from the pawl 18 and the link 26' is on the lowermost portion of the slot 25. As the rotation of the shaft 23 is continued, it is obvious that the dog 22 will be still further elevated,thus lifting the link 26 and the disengaged pawl 18 from the ratchet 17 so that the main or operating shaft is released to permit dis charge of the load.

With the arrangement above described, it is apparent that it is only necessary to emindicated at 19. Each ploy one auxiliary shaft extending from side to side of the car and that the release of the pawls from the ratchets, as also the returning of all the parts to locked position, is simultaneous at each side of the car, so that the operator can Work from either side. The arrangement is simple, comparatively inexpensive and facilitates materially the unloading of cars, particularly ore cars, in those places where the operator has access to the cars on one side only.

Although I have herein shown and described my arrangement as applied to an ore car, it is obvious that the invention may be employed in other arrangements without departing from the spirit thereof, and I contemplate all changes and modifications that come within the scope of the claims appended heretol I claim:

1. In; a door operating mechanism, the combination with an operating shaft, of meansas'sociated with each end of the shaft for locking the same, an auxiliary shaft operable from either end, and means extendlng between sald auxiliary shaft at each end and said first named means for moving the I latter to release position.

2. In a door operating mechanism for cars and the like, the combination with a main shaft having a ratchet wheel thereon, of a pivoted pawl cooperable with said ratchet wheel, an auxiliary shaft operable from either end, a locking dog carried by said auxiliary shaft and cooperable with said pawl to engage and lock the latter in operative position, and means extending from said dog to the pawl for releasing the latter upon moving the dog to inoperative position.

3. In a door operating mechanism for cars, the combination with a main shaft extending transversely of the car, said main shaft having ratchet wheels on each end thereof, of an auxiliary shaft also extending transversely of the car from side to side, means for operating said auxiliary shaft from either end, a pawl cooper-able with each ratchet wheel, dogs rigidly mounted on said auxiliary shaft and cooperable with and adapted to engage said pawls, and connections between each of said dogs and its corresponding pawl adapted to move the pawls to inoperative position upon rotative movement of the auxiliary shaft.

In witness that I claim the foregoing I t have hereunto subscribed my name this 28th day of April, 1917.

ARGYLE CAMPBELL.

Copies of this patentmay be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. G. 

